EDMONTON - A boy with shoulder-length hair in the ’60s had a choice: his hair or his school.

Both Edmonton public and separate school boards said they were fairly tolerant of students’ needs to conform to current fads — which at the time meant Beatlemania — but there were limits.

There were no hard and fast rules. It was up to each school principal to decide if a student’s hair was “too far out.”

Victoria Composite High School student Dave Manning showed up for class one day in January 1964 wearing a neat sweater and tie and a trendy new Beatle cut. His principal scrawled, “Get a haircut” on Manning’s report card.

A month later, Beatle cuts were banned at Vic and at St. Joseph’s Composite High School. The latter also banned Beatle music from being played during the lunch hour.

Two years later, a neatly trimmed Beatle haircut likely wouldn’t get a boy in trouble with school policy, said T.D. Baker, public school deputy superintendent, but a boy with hair to his shoulders would have to get it cut.

Being a member of a long-haired rock band or singing group was no excuse.

One boy who tried it ended up having to discuss the issue with his parents and his principal, who pointed out he had an obligation to be properly dressed and groomed at school.

The solution was a compromise, said H.A. MacNeil, separate school board superintendent: The boy agreed to cut his hair halfway to his shoulders and to keep it neat.

By 1967, young people with long hair were being refused service in restaurants and were often booted out of public places.

Not long after, the Beatles themselves, circa Hey Jude, would be wearing the kind of shoulder-length hair that wouldn’t pass muster at school.

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